Germany Lifting Ban On Fallout 3 Hints At Possible Re-Release

Germany Lifting Ban On Fallout 3 Hints At Possible Re-Release

Germany have lifted a seven year long ban on Fallout 3, after a lengthy effort on Bethesda’s part to make it happen. Naturally, this suggests something is in the works regarding Fallout 3 – Those teases at Bethesda have said they’ll be announcing what they’re up to “in a couple of weeks”.

Most are assuming that a re-release of some kind is on the cards. Whether it’s Fallout 3 HD, a backwards compatible version of the original, or something else entirely remains to be seen.

At any rate, Bethesda had “initiated a difficult and rarely-successful trial” with the Federal Department for Media Harmful to Minors (BPJM) to de-list Fallout 3 three years before its ten year ban expired.

The BPJM said in a statement:

In the case of Fallout 3 the request for de-listing was granted even though only seven years passed since the game was banned. The Big Council decided at its meeting on February 4th that Fallout 3 will be removed from the list because its content is no longer classified as harmful to minors from today’s perspective.

Fallout 3 was banned in Germany back in 2009 because of the levels of violence. Hopefully we’ll find out what this is all in aid of in the next few weeks then.

Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.